Potential of LAMP for detection of plant pathogens.

Abstract Accurate detection of plant pathogens is a crucial step in the process of disease management. Methods based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) have advantages of sensitivity and specificity that make them valuable tools for pathogen detection, but a number of drawbacks to these methods prevent their use in some circumstances. In particular, the cost and complexity of the thermal cycling equipment required for PCR restricts the use of these methods mainly to centralized facilities. Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) is a method for the detection of specific nucleic acid sequences and has the potential to overcome many of the limitations of PCR-based methods. The ability of LAMP to amplify a target nucleic acid sequence under isothermal conditions eliminates the need for thermal cycling equipment, allowing testing to be carried out with minimal equipment (a water bath or heated block). Furthermore, simplified methods for the detection of amplification products facilitate the use of LAMP-based methods in the field or in less well-resourced settings. This paper reviews the reports to date of plant pathogen detection using LAMP; highlights the features that make LAMP well suited to applications such as field testing; and explores some recent advances that point to the broader potential for LAMP-based methods to be used in novel phytodiagnostic solutions.